Social diffusion and loyalty programs: a path to succeed

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to define a model of social technology diffusion, comprising constructs that explain guests’ likelihood of recommending their hotel loyalty program to their peers. Design/methodology/approach The diffusion effect is explained by commitment-trust, satisfaction with user-to-user interactivity, satisfaction with user identifiability and word of mouth. A total of 2,812 usable responses were obtained through an online questionnaire sent to guests with two or more transactions with the loyalty program. Findings The results suggest that commitment and trust and word of mouth are crucial to enact social diffusion. As such, hotel loyalty programs need to be leveraged through enacting social diffusion. Practical implications Tourism and hospitality practitioners dealing with loyalty programs should create and post new trustworthy content that might be beneficial for the hotel loyalty program in their efforts to provide a more valuable experience for guests. Originality/value The paper provides empirical evidence that the likelihood of sharing with other guests or the intention to belong to a hotel loyalty program community exists and then goes on to offer a range of possible responses based upon four relational mediators.

Determinants of passenger loyalty in multi-airport regions: Implications for tourism destination

“…Loyalty is recognized as a critical factor of service effectiveness in the tourism industry (Han, Nguyen, et al, 2018;Han and Hyun, 2018;Hwang et al, 2019;Pimpão et al, 2018), as well as in the airline business (Akamavi et al, 2015;Forgas et al, 2010;Hapsari et al, 2017;Rajaguru, 2016). However, the nature and determinants of passengers loyalty towards the airport are still under-researched (Cui et al, 2013;Nesset and Helgesen, 2014).…”

Developing an eMarketing model for tourism and hospitality: a keyword analysis

“…Content analysis, which is primarily concerned with quantitatively describing the appearance of particular themes, is capable of contributing deeper insight into this online content through advanced machine learning techniques and qualitative in-depth investigations (Cheng et al , 2019). On the other hand, the emergence of SEM expresses sophisticated and advanced methodologies in tourism and hospitality research (Pimpão et al , 2018). The prominence of China and Hong Kong in the keyword list is interesting because both places are located in Asia and are geographically adjacent.…”

“…Marketing performance Loyalty, which is described as a customer’s repeat visitation or repeat purchase behavior, is regarded as an ultimate marketing performance measure that more or less dominates an organization’s success (Kandampully et al , 2015; Pimpão et al , 2018). Loyalty has also been recognized as a major source of competitive advantage for a DMO or hotel by having a powerful impact on performance (Yoo and Bai, 2013).…”

The Effect of Smart Shopper Self-Perceptions On Word-Of-Mouth Behaviors in the Loyalty Reward Program Context

“…First, there is limited research demonstrating drivers of WOM behaviors based on experiences of redeeming loyalty reward points. The only notable exception is Pimpão et al (2018) discussing that commitment and trust in a loyalty reward program positively influence consumers' WOM behaviors. Second, consumers tend to perceive WOM (vs. advertisements) as more credible and, consequently, WOM influences consumers' purchase decisions (Herrero et al, 2015).…”